Icon: Dinu Lipatti [Box Set] [Box set]

Johann Sebastian Bach (Composer), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Composer), Domenico Scarlatti (Composer), Frederic Chopin (Composer), Franz Liszt (Composer), Maurice Ravel (Composer), Johannes Brahms (Composer), George Enescu (Composer), Robert Schumann (Composer), Edvard Grieg (Composer), Bela Bartok (Composer), Franz [Vienna] Schubert (Composer), Herbert von Karajan (Conductor), Alceo Galliera (Conductor), Otto Ackermann (Conductor), Eduard Van Beinum (Conductor), Ernest Ansermet (Conductor), Paul Sacher (Conductor), Philharmonia Orchestra of London (Orchestra), Lucerne Festival Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Lucerne Festival Orchestra
• Conductor: Herbert von Karajan, Alceo Galliera, Otto Ackermann, Eduard Van Beinum, Ernest Ansermet, et al.
• Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Domenico Scarlatti, Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt, et al.
• Audio CD (September 2, 2008)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 7
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B00166QKJW
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,755 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #10 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > Forms & Genres > Sonatas
  • #13 in Music > Classical > Forms & Genres > Short Forms > Nocturnes
  • #15 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Keyboard > Organ

Editorial Reviews

Dinu Lipatti- The Master Pianist plays Bach, Chopin, Liszt, Mozart, Grieg, Schumann, Bartok and Schubert on this seven CD set. Dinu Lipatti (1917- 1950 ) was a Romanian classical pianist and composer whose career was tragically cut short by his death from Hodgkin's disease at age 33. Despite his short career and a relatively small recorded legacy, Lipatti is considered one of the finest pianists of the 20th century.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The entire legacy of a great pianist who died very young, November 13, 2008

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Icon: Dinu Lipatti [Box Set] (Audio CD)

Of the postwar artists who died tragiclaly young (Kathleen Ferrier, William Kapell, Guido Cantelli), the very youngest was Dinu Lipatti, who succumbed to leukemia at 33 in 1950. In death he has become as romantic a figure as any Dumas herione, his memory all the more elusive because of his angelic temperament and very truncated dsicography. Lipatti was a musician's musician, his style being refined, precise, and aristocratic. EMI owns all his commerical recordings, so far as I know, which are gathered here as one of their "Icons."

The series is admirable as an omnium gatherum, making it easy with one purchase to get everything the selected artist has done on EMI. Because of his lasting fame, not much of Lipatti has stayed out of print for long, and the extras found here (e.g., Liszt Cto. #1 and Bartok Cto. #3) are dim radio broadcasts. The actual studio work easily fits on 5 or 6 CDs -- even then we get duplicaitons of Lipatti's definitive LP of Chopin Waltzes (about which I am in the minority, finding each waltz too uniformly fleet and aloof).

In any event, the price at Amazon Marketplace is very cheap, so if you don't know Lipatti's art and can abide mono recordings from the immediate postwar years (never a pleasure on the ear), it's wonderful that he hasn't been forgotten.

Here's the complete program for the 7 CD set:

Bach, J S:
Partita No. 1 in B flat major, BWV825

Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV1052

Bartók:
Piano Concerto No. 3, BB 127, Sz. 119

Brahms:
Waltz, Op. 39 No. 1 in B major

Waltz, Op. 39 No. 2 in E major

Waltz, Op. 39 No. 5 in E major

Waltz, Op. 39 No. 6 in C sharp major

Waltz, Op. 39 No. 10 in G major

Waltz, Op. 39 No. 14 in A minor

Waltz, Op. 39 No. 15 in A flat major

Chopin:
Nocturne No. 8 in D flat major, Op. 27 No. 2

Waltzes Nos. 1-14

Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58

Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11

Enescu:
Piano Sonata No. 3 in D major, Op. 24/3

Grieg:
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16

Liszt:
Petrarch Sonnet No. 104 Années de Pèlerinage: Deuxième année, Italie, S161/5

Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S124

Mozart:
Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor, K310

Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K467 'Elvira Madigan'

Ravel:
Alborada del gracioso (Miroirs No. 4)

Scarlatti, D:
Keyboard Sonata K380 in E major

Keyboard Sonata K9 in D minor

Schubert:
Impromptu in E flat major, D899 No. 2

Impromptu in G flat major, D899 No. 3

Schumann:
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lipatti's incredible recordings, November 22, 2008

By 

Joel Alan Fox - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Icon: Dinu Lipatti [Box Set] (Audio CD)

There are very few recordings of Dinu Lipatti, due to his tragically early death. All them are in this 7 CD set (unless I have missed something), and all of them are of otherworldly beauty. In particular the Schubert impromptu no.2 in E-flat I found to be the most soulful recording of any piece I have ever heard. Needless to say I recommend this product to absolutely everyone.

A few quotations from others who can describe Lipatti much better than I:

From Yehudi Menuhin - Lipatti was a "manifestation of a spirit realm, resistant to all pain and suffering."

From Francis Poulenc - Lipatti was "an artist of divine spirituality."

From Walter Legge - "God lent the world His chosen instrument, whom we called Dinu Lipatti, for too brief a space."

EDIT: there are actually a few rare recordings not on this set. One is from arkivmusic, another is a recording of the schumann concerto with ansermet, and another is called 'les inedits'.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Except for the FM Broadcast Concertos, October 31, 2010

By 

Michael J. Ludvik (Ocala, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Icon: Dinu Lipatti [Box Set] (Audio CD)

To have all of Lipatti's EMI recordings is a wonderful thing. Most of the recordings sound good for their age. However, except for the Grieg/Schumann and Mozart concerto recordings the other concertos strike me as almost unlistenable. It is sad EMI could not find a better source or a better remastering engineer if that would have helped. The Besancon concert is beyond superb; the Mozart sonata is passionate, forceful and sublime all at once and I have never heard it played better nor do I hope to. To my surprise, Lipatti recorded no Beethoven, at least not on this collection. I wonder why not?

For piano artistry 5 stars--for sound quality on some of the sides, 1 star. Still, I recommend it for the artistry.